Former employee of property management company charged by ICAC admits accepting $1.3m in bribes from contractor

A former employee of a property management company, charged by the ICAC, today (May 4) admitted at the District Court that he had accepted bribes totalling $1.3 million from a renovation works contractor for showing favour to the latter regarding property renovation works.

Mak Wing-chun, 51, then senior property officer of the leasing department of New Estate Company Limited (New Estate), pleaded guilty to four counts of agent accepting an advantage, contrary to section 9(1)(b) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO). Judge Mr Clement Lee Hing-nin remanded the defendant in custody of the Correctional Services Department.

The court heard that New Estate owned and managed a portfolio of properties in Hong Kong for lease. At the material time, Mak was responsible for arranging and overseeing contractors to conduct renovation works at New Estate’s properties and certifying the completion of such works before releasing payments to contractors.

New Estate had no internal procurement procedures in place between November 2020 and June 2022, and inviting quotations or conducting tenders were not required when selecting contractors. During this period, New Estate awarded its renovation works to only two contractors. Over the course of one and a half years, one of these contractors was awarded most of the renovation projects and received works payments totalling about $26 million.

In mid-June 2022, New Estate’s management began requiring its leasing department to invite companies other than the two existing contractors to bid for renovation works when awarding contracts. Mak subsequently informed the contractor, which had been awarded numerous renovation projects, of the new procurement requirements and alerted the contractor that New Estate might have discovered that the cost of its works was far above the prices submitted by new bidders.

The ICAC investigation stemmed from a corruption complaint. It was revealed that on various occasions, Mak had accepted bribes totalling $1.3 million from the contractor for showing favour to the latter regarding arrangements and supervision of renovation works. Mak used some of the bribes to settle payments for his newly-purchased residential flat.

Co-defendant Lee Shing-kan, 77, sole proprietor of Art Land Decoration Co., earlier pleaded not guilty to four counts of offering an advantage to an agent, contrary to section 9(2)(b) of the POBO. His trial commenced at the District Court today.

New Estate rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.

The prosecution was today represented by prosecuting counsel Bernard Chung, assisted by ICAC officer Eva Chan.